Safer Roads After Dark

Night Driving Winter is in full swing and while the shortest of its days are behind us, many more lie ahead. Driving in the dark always has its perils but on winter days, people spend even more time driving in the dark. Depth perception, color recognition, and peripheral vision are all compromised when driving at night. Even with well-lit roads, visibility at night is more difficult than during daylight. In rural areas, night time driving is even more challenging with long stretches of road that are often insufficiently lit.  Night Perils  In addition to visibility issues, night driving has additional challenges. Fatigue becomes more common in the dark and dulls concentration and slows reaction time. Crashes are more common at night with a disproportionate number of fatal accidents happening after dark. The National Safety Council (NSC) calls driving in the dark “the most dangerous time to drive,” listing additional factors such as rush hour driving, impaired driving, and particularly poor vision for elderly drivers. With the many added concerns of night time roadways, effective traffic calming becomes more imperative than ever to protect drivers and pedestrians from accidents and injuries. Improving Nighttime Safety Safer night roads begin with well-engineered roads that are designed to protect motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists and keep traffic moving at a safe pace. One of the most important ways to implement safety is to improve visibility and keep drivers alert. At Traffic Logix, our solutions are manufactured to do just that. Our SafePace signs are equipped with highly visible leds, flashing lights, and driver-responsive messaging to keep drivers alert and focused on the roads. All of our rubber traffic calming solutions are molded with highly reflective highway tape for improved nighttime visibility. Educational Tips In addition to better equipped roadways, educating drivers about cautions to take when driving in the dark can go a long way to preventing accidents. Some valuable tips from dmv.org include:  ·Keeping headlights on 1 hour before dusk and after dawn ·Maintain greater than normal distance between you and the next driver ·Focus eyes on the right edge of road to avoid glare ·Stay alert to deer and other wildlife ·Don’t ignore fatigue- make stops and take brisk walks

Healthier Roads in the New Year

New Year’s Resolutions and Your Roadways Health is the cornerstone of wholesome living. Perhaps that’s why the number one New Year’s resolution for 2015 was to lose weight. The goal of a well formulated diet is to achieve optimal health. For cities around the world, road diets take the same approach. They aim to keep roads trim with a wholesome approach- one that keeps all road users in mind including motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists. What is a Road Diet? A road diet is a healthy overhaul for today’s overweight roads. Road diets reduce the number of travel lanes or the width of roads and often introduce new or expanded spaces for pedestrians and bicyclists to use. Some techniques used in road diets include adding or widening walkways, narrowing roadways with curbing, adding cycle lanes on one or both sides of the street, using landscaping or green areas to limit driving space, or adding a center turn lane. Putting roads on a diet often encourages improved commerce as access to businesses becomes easier and safer for all road users. Why the need for diets? With the wide use of motor vehicles for transportation, many roadways across the country were designed with only the needs of motorists in mind. In recent decades, as bicycling and walking have become more popular and healthier modes of local travel, people have been discovering that roads are often not friendly to these users. In addition, on roads where speeding and accidents  are concerns, implementing road diets lowers driver speeds and reduces crash rates. In fact, researchers have found that road diets reduce crash frequency by 19-43%. Beyond Diets Road diets, while beneficial on some roadways, are not the solution for all streets. Some streets can’t be narrowed, while for others a road diet is simply not enough to solve the problem. Just as simply dieting is not always enough for a better lifestyle, roadways too can benefit from a more holistic approach. Complete streets are another initiative that can help cities to create streets that are healthier and more livable. Complete streets often integrate traffic calming measures such as speed humps, staggered parking, lower speed limits, radar signs, pedestrian crosswalks, bike lanes, and the like.

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

December Celebrations Whether you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, or just Life, December is a busy, happy, joy-filled season. For traffic engineers and police professionals across the world, it’s a critical responsibility to ensure it stays that way. The perils of the road all year long are exacerbated during these hectic weeks. Tensions are high as everyone rushes to get everything done on time and no one wants joy to turn into tragedy.  Holiday Hazards People are rushing to do gift shopping, celebrate with friends, and plan upcoming festivities. While the increasing popularity of online shopping may have decreased traffic to stores, it’s also increased the number of delivery trucks on local roads. In addition, many children have time off of school, increasing the number of pedestrians on streets. As distracted driving has become a rampant issue in recent years, it’s an additional factor to consider on holiday-clogged roads. What Can You Do? Promoting safe driving on holiday roads should ideally start long before the holidays. Having a traffic calming program in place with driver feedback sign, speed humps, and bike lanes where you need them can ensure that your roads are well equipped for the holiday rush. Even with well engineered streets though, the perils of holiday driving can still be a concern. Educational campaigns can be a great way to offset existing traffic calming by reminding drivers of the importance of driving sober, focused, and within speed limits. What's being done? When it comes to educating drivers and pedestrians about street safety during the holidays, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Many resources exist to help you along the way. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a free app called SaferRide that helps impaired drivers get a taxi or call a friend with one click. In Seattle, a holiday pedestrian safety campaign has a wide array of ads and posters to encourage both drivers and pedestrians to exercise extra caution during the holidays while an air force base in Florida has an annual holiday traffic safety campaign Traffic Safety Marketing, a division of NHTSA, also has powerful marketing materials available to help you protect road users during the holidays.

Webinar

Ever wonder the difference between speed humps and bumps? Or what kind of streets are best to put traffic calming solutions on?

Traffic Logix recently hosted part 1 in a 2 part traffic calming webinar series. Presented by Tim Harpst, former ITE president, the webinar discussed some of the traffic calming solutions that are popular on today’s streets, defining the differences between them and the pros and cons of each.

A recorded version of the webinar can be viewed here.      .

The Q&A’s posed by participants are available on the Traffic Logix site at http://trafficlogix.com/media/webinars.

The second part of the webinar will take place in February and will discuss radar signs as well as other solutions for safer roads. Check out part 1 on our site and you can still register to attend part 2 live here.

Are you using the data your sign offers?

All of the SafePace speed signs offer optional data collection that allows you to keep track of when cars are driving, how they are driving, and when and where they are violating speed limits.

Can this data help you make better decisions for your roads? How can you use the data from your radar signs to help you analyze driver behavior at different times of the day, week, or year? And most importantly, how can you use that data to make your roads safer and prevent accidents? Learn more about the SafePace software and why you should be collecting traffic data to help make your roads safer.

Hypnotized Behind The Wheel

Every day, thousands of drivers drive hypnotized. No, it's not a new craze- it's a real phenomenon, and it's probably happened to you. Do you ever mistakenly drive in the wrong direction because that's how you usually go? Have you ever pulled into your driveway and wondered how you got there? That's because you experienced highway hypnosis.

Strange as it seems, highway hypnosis is more common than it seems- and can lead to dangerous results. Check out our November Traffic Calmer and read about what highway hypnosis is, what to do about it, and some key strategies for prevention. Learn how blinking leds on driver feedback signs can help return drivers to the present with a bright visual alert.

The Lightweight Sign with Full Size Impact

There are some radar speed signs, like the bestselling SafePace 100 radar sign that offer a compact, lightweight solution to speeding cars. While small signs are economical and may be ideal for HOA or campus roads, the 11" digits can be hard to see on larger roadways or for higher speed traffic.

Other signs like the full size SafePace line offer full size digits that are easier to see but are heavy and can only be used at multiple location with a trailer unit.

The new SafePace 450 driver feedback sign offers a synergy of both kinds of radar signs. It boasts lightweight design but still offers full size digits. It also offers several features until now only offered with the SafePace 100 speed indicator sign such as battery power for autonomo
us functioning and universal mounting brackets.

Learn more about the SafePace 450 speed sign in our Product Spotlight October newsletter.